Kiwi driver James Munro would probably perform handstands on his Giles Motorsport car’s nose cone if he was to win the 60th New Zealand Grand Prix on Sunday.
There are 16 overseas drivers in this year’s Toyota Racing Series (TRS) and the odds are one of them will get to wear the NZGP laurels.
The NZGP has been won by a New Zealander all 11 times it has been raced at Manfeild. Auckland’s Nick Cassidy has won the past three and he can’t get a drive for the season finale as he did last year.
Canterbury driver Munro, 18 and fresh out of Christ’s College, is the highest-placed Kiwi, in seventh place. His sole podium place was second in race 1 at Teretonga last month.
“I want to finish the season on a high,” he said. “It has been a tough season so far.
“Everything hasn’t quite come together.”
Last year he was running third in the grand prix only to lose two places after one of the infernal yellow-flag restarts. This summer the race leader gets to control the pace at a re-start
He has had drivers crash into him and two non-finishes haven’t helped. The other gremlin has been in qualifying.
The key in the NZGP will be tomorow’s qualifying session. It is difficult to get it right – fuel load, tyres, a clean run at a lap and the track well rubbered-in.
Just out of karting, Munro won the New Zealand Formula Ford title in 2013 and was in the TRS last year, yes, finishing seventh.
Last year, in between schoolwork, he won the Formula Masters China Series with a Hong Kong team in a Tatuus-built cars like those in the TRS, only slower.
“The grand prix is the biggest race of the season and everyone wants to win it. That would definitely make up for my season.”
Because the new FT50 cars have more downforce, Munro said the tyres are having a harder time than in the previous car, the FT40.
If Munro doesn’t win the NZGP, there are three other Kiwis, all from Invercargill who might come through. Jamie Conroy won on his home track as did Brendon Leitch in his fourth TRS season. His brother Damon (third in TRS overall last year) has yet to climb a podium, but he is eighth overall after gearbox problems hurt in early rounds.
One things seems sure, the Manfeild track record will go because track records have fallen at all four previous meetings. Manfeild’s is 1min 3.27secs, set last year by series winner Andrew Tang (Singapore).
The most recent foreign NZGP winner was Bahraini Hamad Al Fardan at Teretonga in 2006, the first year of the TRS. Palmerston North’s Brendon Hartley was third that day. Al Fardan was an outsider, 13th in the series and didn’t win another race.
